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In transmitting President Richard Nixon's orders for a "massive" bombing of Cambodia in 1969, Henry Kissinger said, &...

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Wednesday, April 03, 2013

George Orwell Quotes-A History Talks Vol 1-Issue 13

Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950), known by his pen name George Orwell

Men can only be happy when they do not assume
that the object of life is happiness.

If liberty means anything at all, it means the
right to tell people what they do not want to hear.

To see what is in front of one's nose needs a
constant struggle.

Many people genuinely do not wish to be
saints, and it is possible that some who achieve or aspire to sainthood have
never had much temptation to be human beings.

Pacifism is objectively pro-fascist. This is
elementary common sense. If you hamper the war effort of one side, you
automatically help out that of the other. Nor is there any real way of
remaining outside such a war as the present one. In practice, 'he that is not
with me is against me.

Serious sport has nothing to do with fair
play. It is bound up with hatred, jealousy, boastfulness, disregard of all
rules and sadistic pleasure in witnessing violence. In other words: it is war
minus the shooting.

Speaking the Truth in times of universal
deceit is a revolutionary act.

The great enemy of clear language is
insincerity

To see what is in front of one's nose requires
a constant struggle.

For a creative writer possession of the truth
is less important than emotional sincerity.

Every generation imagines itself to be more
intelligent than the one that went before it, and wiser than the one that comes
after it.

All animals are equal but some animals are
more equal than others.

The quickest way of ending a war is to lose
it.

An autobiography is only to be trusted when it
reveals something disgraceful. A man who gives a good account of himself is
probably lying, since any life when viewed from the inside is simply a series
of defeats.

Political language. . . is designed to make
lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of
solidity to pure wind.

Saints should always be judged guilty until
they are proved innocent.

At age 50, every man has the face he deserves.

On the whole human beings want to be good, but
not too good and not quite all the time.

Advertising is the rattling of a stick inside
a swill bucket.

Liberal: a power worshipper without power.

Political language - and with variations this
is true of all political parties, from Conservatives to Anarchists - is
designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an
appearance of solidity to pure wind.

Who controls the past controls the future. Who
controls the present controls the past.

If liberty means anything at all, it means the
right to tell people what they do not want to hear.

We sleep safe in our beds because rough men
stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would do us harm.

Power is not a means, it is an end. One does
not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the
revolution in order to establish the dictatorship. The object of persecution is
persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power.

War is a way of shattering to pieces, or
pouring into the stratosphere, or sinking in the depths of the sea, materials
which might otherwise be used to make the masses too comfortable, and hence, in
the long run, too intelligent.

A scrupulous writer,
in every sentence that he writes, will ask himself at least four questions,
thus: 1. What am I trying to say? 2. What words will express it? 3. What image
or idiom will make it clearer? 4. Is this image fresh enough to have an effect?
― Politics and the English Language

Journalism is printing
what someone else does not want printed: everything else is public relations

The educated man
pictures a horde of submen, wanting only a day's liberty to loot his house,
burn his books, and set him to work minding a machine or sweeping out a
lavatory. 'Anything,' he thinks, 'any injustice, sooner than let that mob
loose.' He does not see that since there is no difference between the mass of
rich and poor, there is no question of setting the mob loose. The mob is in
fact loose now, and--in the shape of rich men--is using its power to set up
enormous treadmills of boredom, such as 'smart' hotels.

― Down and Out in
Paris and London

When I sit down to
write a book, I do not say to myself, 'I am going to produce a work of art.' I
write it because there is some lie that I want to expose, some fact to which I
want to draw attention, and my initial concern is to get a hearing.
― Why I Write

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"A petty reason perhaps why novelists more and more try to keep a distance from journalists is that novelists are trying to write the truth and journalists are trying to write fiction." Graham Greene

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Russell Crowe, Amanda Dole and myself outside Radio Redfern, May Day 1989. Russell had just performed a few songs on my show, Radio Solidarity. Amanda is an organiser for the National Union of Workers.

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Togs's Place.Com is a massive blog/web site. To get around and find articles you want or just explore, use the SEARCH BLOG, if you enter Noam Chomsky, you'll not only come up with numerous articles, speeches, interviews by and with Chomsky, but also being referred to in articles by Robert Fisk, John Pilger, Naomi Kline and myself. With Blogger you've got to scroll down from the most recent till the oldest. Every posting has a label ie, New Romans;Middle East from May 18 07 to today, this is a new system I've adopted for labels, previous labels on this topic were New Romans;Middle East 4, 3, 2, 1. These numbers go backwards to when I started this site in October 2006. New Romans;Middle East from May 18 07 to today will relabeled New Romans;Middle East from May 18 to June 10 07 for easy reference and the new label will be New Romans;Middle East from June 10 07 to today. The Recent Posts is the quick link to my Recent Postings. The Links can take you to 170 different web sites in Australia and around the World.

It's been a learning experience for me operating this blog but there is an insatiable hunger for alternative news and opinion on a range of issues in Australia that is often ignored or sidelined by the corporate media and an increasing self censored and Murdoch managed ABC.

Journalists and Writers I Like.

"Bread and work and love, the poor man’s trinity, and by all three needs they chain him down." Christina Stead 1902-1983 Seven Poor Men of Sydney

"Every government is run by liars and nothing should be believed." I.F.Stone 1907-89

"I have made more friends for American culture than the State Department. Certainly I have made fewer enemies, but that isn't very difficult." Arthur Miler 1915-2005

"In times of universal deceit, telling the truth will be a revolutionary act." George Orwell 1903-50

"It is not enough for journalists to see themselves as mere messengers without understandig the hidden agendas of the message that surrounds it." John Pilger

"Lots of people who complained about us receiving the MBE received theirs for heroism in the war - for killing people. We received ours for entertaining other people. I'd say we deserve ours more." Joesph Heller 1923-99

"Media is just a word that has come to mean bad journalism." Graham Greene 1904-91

"My experience in the First World War and now the Second World War [his son Barney was killed in the Battle of Singapore] changed my outlook on things. It is hard to believe that there is a God. I feel the Bible is a book written by man but for the purpose of preying on a person’s conscience, and to confuse him. Anyone who taken part in a bayonet charge (and I have) [Gallipoli], and has managed to retain his proper senses, must doubt the truth of the Bible and the powers of God, if one exists. And considering the many hundreds of different religions that there are in this world of ours, and the fact that many religions have caused terrible wars and hatreds throughout the world, and that many religions that have hoarded tremendous wealth and property while people inside and outside religion are starving , it is difficult to remain a believer. No Sir, there is no God, it is only a myth." Albert Facey 1894-1982 A Fortunate Life

"Now take my case. I’m twenty-nine and have two brothers—one in the Liberal Party and one serving six years for rape and arson. My sister Peg is on the streets and Dad lives off her earnings. Mum is pregnant by the boarder and because of this Dad won’t marry her. Last night I got engaged to an ex-prostitute and I wish to be fair to her: should I tell her about my brother in the Liberal Party." David Ireland 1927- The Unknown Industrial Prisoner

"Prime Minster Howard I’ve heard You met George Bush and the Pope too, I understand, Oh I liked the Pope much better, I only had to kiss his hand." L’Amour Denis Kevans 1939-2005

"The first law of journalism-to confirm existing prejudice rather than contradict it." Alexander Cockburn

"The Labour Party [ALP], starting with a band of inspired Socialists, degenerated into a vast machine for capturing political power, but did not know how to use the power when attained except for the profit of individuals[...] Such is the history of all Labour organisations in Australia, and not because they are Australian , but because they are Labour..." Victor Gordon Childe 1892-1957, How Labour Governs

"The trouble with a free market economy is that it requires so many policemen to make it work." Neal Ascherson, 1932- Games with the Shadows, Policing the Marketplace.

"The trouble with America is that when the dollar only earns 6 percent over here, then it gets restless and goes overseas to get 100 percent. Then the flag follows the dollar and the soldiers follow the flag. I wouldn't go to war again as I have done to protect some lousy investment of the bankers. There are only two things we should fight for. One is the defense of our homes and the other is the Bill of Rights. War for any other reason is simply a racket. There isn't a trick in the racketeering bag that the military gang is blind to. It has its "finger men" to point out enemies, its "muscle men" to destroy enemies, its "brain men" to plan war preparations, and a "Big Boss" Super-Nationalistic-Capitalism. It may seem odd for me, a military man to adopt such a comparison. Truthfulness compels me to. I spent thirty- three years and four months in active military service as a member of this country's most agile military force, the Marine Corps. I served in all commissioned ranks from Second Lieutenant to Major-General. And during that period, I spent most of my time being a high class muscle- man for Big Business, for Wall Street and for the Bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. " Major General Smedley Butler,1881-1940

"What is the crime of robbing a bank compared with the crime of founding one." Bertolt Brecht 1898-1956

"Who is more to be pitied, a writer bound and gagged by policemen or one living in perfect freedom who has nothing more to say?" Kurt Vonnegut 1922-2007

[Battler]" a conscientious person working against many odds to make a living; one whose life is a constant struggle.’ Battlers maybe men or women; black or white. They rarely deal with racism (the negative side of our tradition) because they sympathise with anyone facing adversity or unfair criticism. The term ‘battler’ is a state of mind-a traditional attitude which goes back to the convict era, when the battler was on a flogging to nothing but fiddled around the rules and held his masters in contempt. The battlers are aware that they are being lied to by....politicians; and they suspect that Keating’s warning that Australia could become a banana republic is in fact, happening before their eyes." Frank Hardy 1917-1994. Retreat Australia Fair 1990

I don't respect the law; I have a total irreverence for anything connected with society except that which makes the roads safer, the beer stronger, the food cheaper and the old men and old women warmer in the winter and happier in the summer. Brendan Behan 1923-64

“I do what I do, and write what I write, without calculating what is worth what and so on. Fortunately, I am not a banker or an accountant. I feel that there is a time when a political statement needs to be made and I make it.” Arundhati Roy